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EurasiaNet.org, NY
May 8 2012
Two Elections and One Inauguration: What's in It for Armenia
May 8, 2012 - 1:01pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Within almost one day, France elected a new president, Russia
installed its old one and Armenia essentially kept its old parliament.
All three events have significant implications for Armenia's future.
Back in Yerevan, Armenia's political opposition is finding it hard to
digest the news that it will remain an opposition and one with a
modest presence in the new parliament, according to early election
results. Whether or not the election's top-two finalists -- President
Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party of Armenia and the Prosperous
Armenia Party -- will revive their governing coalition remains open to
speculation, but is not a question likely to keep anyone up late.
But while Armenia faces a prospect of more of the same in its
political kitchen, there has been a change on the foreign policy
front.
On May 6, France laid off President Nicolas Sarkozy, a self-styled
friend of the Armenians and a longtime Turkey-skeptic. President
Sargsyan enjoyed good vibes with Sarkozy, and the latter played the
Armenian card heavily in the final year of his presidency.
In France, Sarkozy backed a law that criminalized denying that the
Ottoman Empire's World-War-I-era slaughter of ethnic Armenians in
Turkey was genocide. He went barn-storming across the Caucasus, where
he struck the pose of a supporter of the Armenian cause and the savior
of Georgia during its 2008 war with Russia. But wagging a finger at
Turkey and wooing the Diaspora Armenian vote did not help Sarkzoy
secure a second term.
After a year of bickering with France, Turkey was quick to reach out
to Sarkozy's successor, President-Elect François Hollande, for a fresh
start. While Hollande also backed the genocide law, there are signs
that he might try to wipe the slate clean with Turkey.
Yerevan has little to worry about with another ally, Russia, where
former Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry
Medvedev now have switched jobs. Whichever was on top as Russian
president, Putin and Medvedev both maintained a close diplomatic and
economic partnership with Armenia, where Russian troops serve as a key
deterrent against enemy Azerbaijan.
Putin, who once described as a done deal Peter the Great's advice that
Armenians should be embraced and pampered, is unlikely to rethink
things now.
All other variables being constant, that means that, geographically
speaking, Armenian friendship will continue to work vertically (Russia
to the north and Iran to the south), and enmity horizontally (Turkey
to the west and Azerbaijan to the east) for the foreseeable future.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65376
From: Baghdasarian
May 8 2012
Two Elections and One Inauguration: What's in It for Armenia
May 8, 2012 - 1:01pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Within almost one day, France elected a new president, Russia
installed its old one and Armenia essentially kept its old parliament.
All three events have significant implications for Armenia's future.
Back in Yerevan, Armenia's political opposition is finding it hard to
digest the news that it will remain an opposition and one with a
modest presence in the new parliament, according to early election
results. Whether or not the election's top-two finalists -- President
Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party of Armenia and the Prosperous
Armenia Party -- will revive their governing coalition remains open to
speculation, but is not a question likely to keep anyone up late.
But while Armenia faces a prospect of more of the same in its
political kitchen, there has been a change on the foreign policy
front.
On May 6, France laid off President Nicolas Sarkozy, a self-styled
friend of the Armenians and a longtime Turkey-skeptic. President
Sargsyan enjoyed good vibes with Sarkozy, and the latter played the
Armenian card heavily in the final year of his presidency.
In France, Sarkozy backed a law that criminalized denying that the
Ottoman Empire's World-War-I-era slaughter of ethnic Armenians in
Turkey was genocide. He went barn-storming across the Caucasus, where
he struck the pose of a supporter of the Armenian cause and the savior
of Georgia during its 2008 war with Russia. But wagging a finger at
Turkey and wooing the Diaspora Armenian vote did not help Sarkzoy
secure a second term.
After a year of bickering with France, Turkey was quick to reach out
to Sarkozy's successor, President-Elect François Hollande, for a fresh
start. While Hollande also backed the genocide law, there are signs
that he might try to wipe the slate clean with Turkey.
Yerevan has little to worry about with another ally, Russia, where
former Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry
Medvedev now have switched jobs. Whichever was on top as Russian
president, Putin and Medvedev both maintained a close diplomatic and
economic partnership with Armenia, where Russian troops serve as a key
deterrent against enemy Azerbaijan.
Putin, who once described as a done deal Peter the Great's advice that
Armenians should be embraced and pampered, is unlikely to rethink
things now.
All other variables being constant, that means that, geographically
speaking, Armenian friendship will continue to work vertically (Russia
to the north and Iran to the south), and enmity horizontally (Turkey
to the west and Azerbaijan to the east) for the foreseeable future.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65376
From: Baghdasarian